Students will log onto their kidblog account and write a reflection to this question. "What have a learned from my research guide and How will I keep myself safe online?"
Day 2 - Introduction of Project/Group Forming
Student will complete a KWL chart individually and will then share the information with the class.
Student will form groups of 2-3 students based on commonalities across their KWL chart. This will be facilitated by the teacher.
Students groups will be added to their wikispaces which were already created by the teacher. The wikispaces will be used as an ongoing formative assessment for the students.
Students will begin working in groups determining the natural resources and industry that exist within their community Student will also be provided a list of industry leaders who they may interview for their project. The interviews are pre-planned by the instructor and my take place via Skype to a classroom visit depending on the manner in which the teacher has developed the program.
Students will answer the following question on their kidblog. "what have I contributed to the group today? What difficulties/success have I experienced? How can I make tomorrow more successful?"
Day 3 - Individual Classroom Collaboration Activity
Students will continue working on their blog, and if possible, interview industry leaders from the community. By the end of this period, the students should know what the natural resources are from their area, what is made or produced by these materials and where these materials are shipped to. All of this information will be posted on the group's wiki.
Students will respond to the same reflection question in their kidblog that they did yesterday.
Day 4 - Three Classroom Collaborative Activity
Students will interact for the first time with the other two schools involved in this project.
Students will share their projects online with another group utilizing Skype. As each group is presenting, they are to be looking for connections between the information found on their wiki with the information being presented to them on the other schools' wikis.
Once the sharing has been completed ( and hopefully a connection is made) students will respond in their kidblog the following information. "What connections have you discovered between our school and the other two schools? What do we have in common? What is different? Why do you think that is?"
Day 5 - Share and Reflect
Students will update their wiki to include the information from the other two schools. They will be reminded that they are being asked to draw connections between the school and that is the main purpose of this activity.
Students will present their updated and completed blog to the remainder of the class.
Students will complete a peer evaluation/group work
Students will respond t the following question on their kidblog.
"What, if anything can be done to increase communication between school and states? What did you learn from this project? What adjustments would you have made on time on topic?"
Step by Step Instructional Strategies for the 7th Grade
Day 1 - Internet Safety
Day 2 - Introduction of Project/Group Forming
Day 3 - Individual Classroom Collaboration Activity
Day 4 - Three Classroom Collaborative Activity
Day 5 - Share and Reflect